My guide and I this secret pathway chose,
To reconduct us to the world of light;
And up we journeyed, heedless of repose,
He mounting first, while I his steps pursued ;-
Till, through an orifice, heaven's splendours bright

133

Burst on mine eyes :-emerging thence, we view'd The stars once more unfolded to our sight.

139

NOTES.

Page 298. (Line 1.) This is a parody on the first verse of a Latin hymn, sung by the Church in praise of the Cross. "Vexilla regis prodeunt." The king of hell is about to appear. (8.) The wind is produced by the flapping of Lucifer's wings. See line 51.

Page 299. (Line 18.) Lucifer or Satan,-once an angel of light; here called Dis. See Paradiso. xix. 47. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! yet shalt thou be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit."Isaiah xiv. 12, 15. Alluding to this passage, Rossetti shows that Dis or Satan is here intended to represent the Pope.-Sullo. Spir. Antip. page 47, 51. (32.) A similar argument is applied to the Deity, by Spenser. Hymn to Heavenly Beauty,—

"Cease then my tongue, and lend unto my mind
Leave to bethink how great that Beauty is,

Whose utmost parts so beautiful I find."

(34.) Hence Milton. Par. Lost. i. 84.-

"If thou be'st he, but O! how fallen, how changed
From him, who in the happy realms of light,

Cloath'd with transcendent brightness, did'st outshine

Myriads though bright."

Page 300. (Line 38.) According to Vellutello, the three faces,
red, yellow, and black, denote anger, envy, and melancholy;
and hence Mr. Cary observes, Milton derived his description
of Satan. Par. Lost. iv. 114.

"Each passion dimmed his face,

Thrice changed with pale ire, envy, and despair.”
Page 302. (Line 95.) See Virgil. Æn. vi. 128. Hence Milton.
Par. Lost. ii, 432,

"Long is the way,

And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light."
(108.) The worm is the great dragon or old serpent,
"called
the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." Se
Rev. xii. 9.

Page 303, (Line 117.) Giudecca is the circle of Judas,
through which Dante had just past. Treachery, as instanced
in Lucifer and Judas, who are coupled together, is punished in
the lowest depth of hell, as the most abominable of crimes.
Thus Eschylus. Prom. Vinct. 1104.

τὲς γαρ προδότας μισεῖν ἔμαθον,

κ' εκ ἔτι νόσος

τησδ' ὂντιν ̓ ἀπέπτυσα μᾶλλον.

(121.) "Dante tells us, that when Lucifer was hurled from the
celestial regions, the arch-devil transfixed the globe; half his
body remained on our side the centre of the earth, and half on
the other side. The shock given to the earth by his fall drove
a great portion of the waters of the ocean to the southern he-

X

misphere, and only one high mountain remained uncovered, upon which Dante places his Purgatory."-Ugo Foscolo. Quart. Review. vol. xxi. (122.) This is according to the opinion that the land and sea have changed places; by Dante attributed to the effects of Lucifer's fall. See Rev. ix. I. (127.) “Hitherto Virgil has been speaking to Dante; Dante now addresses us." -Lombardi. Beyond Beelzebub or Lucifer, i.e. on the other side of the centre, extends, he says, a rocky path, equal to the depth of hell, or the semi-diameter of the earth, so dark as to be only discoverable by the sound of a rivulet which runs through it. Up this rude path, or water course, the poets proceed to the surface of the opposite hemisphere, and again obtain a sight of the stars.

Page 304. (Line 133.) "In these last verses, after the sorrow that pervades this part of the poem, begins to breathe a sweetness which prepares the soul for that calm delight with which it will be soothed from the first to the last verse of the succeeding canticle."-Ugo Foscolo, Discorso.

END OF INFERNO.